Five ways for lawyers to build their confidence before a media interview
In our media training for lawyers, we start each session by listing the participants’ objectives. It means that we can meet their individual needs and cover everything that they want to discuss.
One of the most frequently quoted aims is developing confidence. It’s quite understandable that lawyers should feel anxious before a media interview. After all, everyone has seen examples of them going wrong and occasionally costing people in their careers. We also know, having provided media coaching for law firms over many years that lawyers do like to be in control.
We hope to see you soon on one of our media interview training courses for lawyers but, until then, here five ways for lawyers to build their confidence before a media interview.
1. Know the format
Lawyers often feel anxious doing media interviews because of a quite understandable fear of the unknown.
Being clear about what kind of interview you’re doing and how you’re going to be “cast,” as we say in the media is essential. In our media training for lawyers, we talk about the importance of knowing whether you’re going to do a print interview, contribute to radio programme or pop up on the telly.
We work closely with the PR companies and in house comms teams when we deliver media training for law firms and we stress to the lawyers that we train that these experts are there to help.
They will confirm with journalist the style of the programme or the nature of the publication and roughly what you’re going to be asked. We explain in our media coaching for lawyers why you’re unlikely to get the exact questions, by the way. The point is that the more you know about the outlet and the more familiar with it you are the more confident you’ll feel.
2. Know what you’re going to say
OK, that’s the journalist – what about your contribution? What are you going to say? Being clear on your key message, what you want your audience to take away is essential.
This is why, during our media training for lawyers we stress the importance of preparation. You wouldn’t go into court or a client meeting without preparing, so why would you go and speak to hundreds of thousands of people without doing the same? We provide a number of quick, easy preparation techniques for lawyers doing media interviews.
Honing down that message is part of the preparation process. You’ll only be able to put across one or two points. Anymore and your audience won’t remember anything that you’ve said. You’ll also need to think about how you’re going to back them up with a story, example or anecdote.
Being familiar with your key messages means that if the journalist does try to push you off course you know exactly where you want to get back to. And that’s half the battle when it comes to gaining control of the interview. We also work with lawyers to help them to find the words and phrases that they need to express these messages clearly and authentically.
3. Practice and rehearse
Once you’ve identified these messages and examples – walk around the room and practice them with help from your Comms team or PR agency. It’s one thing to see your key messages and supporting examples written down on paper in bullet point form but it’s completely different to being familiar with how to say them at loud.
You obviously don’t want to sound over rehearsed and like the worst kind of glib politician but you still need to have them clearly fixed in your mind. Very importantly, you need to develop that “muscle memory,” that allows you to puts them across almost without thinking about them.
4. Speak slowly and breathe.
This might sound obvious but it’s amazing how often people speak too fast during media interviews and presentation. It’s also very understandable – you’ve got a lot that you want to say, your heart is beating and your breathing is rapid, you know you only have a limited amount of time and actually you want to get through this scary experience as quickly as possible.
The only problem is that your audience will miss your key points and you’ll sound anxious, unconvincing and lacking in authority.
Speaking and breathing slowly will allow you to emphasise key words and phrases so that your audience takes them on board and you sound authoritative. This will also have the effect of making you feel more calm and confident. Research shows that high status individuals tend to talk more slowly – they’re confident about setting the pace of the conversation and they don’t fear being interrupted.
3. “What we’re saying to clients is…”
This relates to the point above. Journalists want to hear from lawyers about the advice they’re giving to their clients. This is topical – it’s happening just now. We journalists always want to hear the latest, after all the news is new! Talking about the advice you’re giving clients or what clients are asking you about also emphasises that what you’re doing is very much at the coal face. It’s not just abstruse legal theory. It’s what companies and individuals are currently concerned about and what they should or should not be doing. Journalists always look for practical detail and therefore these phrases will grab their attention and improve your chances of generating positive media coverage.
5. Know what you don’t want to say
In our media training courses for lawyers, we remind the participants that as well as being focussed on your key messages, they also need to be aware of what they don’t want to say.
All of our media trainers are working journalists (operating under strict non-disclosure agreements) and so they can tell you that journalists will ask anyone anything. It’s part of the fun for us. We’ve all heard that “While I’ve got you here..” question being put to a politician or other interviewee. In our media training workshops for lawyers we look at how they can give examples and provide case studies without compromising client confidentiality.
Media interviews and training for lawyers
Being aware of these possible irrelevant or difficult questions and having answers ready for them or at least being prepared to manage them will also help to build your confidence before you do a media interview. We teach a variety of techniques to handle difficult questions and to enable lawyers and other interviewees to get back onto their key messages and to regain control of the interview.
Five ways for lawyers to build their confidence before a media interview
Feeling a degree of anxiety before you do a media interview isn’t a bad thing. It will help you to focus and the adrenaline can enable you to give a better performance. There are risks as well as opportunities involved in doing a media interview. Knowing how to exploit the opportunities while mitigating the risks is a great way to build confidence.
Media Training for Lawyers
Come and talk to us about our media training courses for lawyers. We can help you to build your confidence and deliver better media interviews, so that you raise your profile and attract new business. You can follow us on LinkedIn here.
